Hi, I'm Michaela Guzy. I am an award-winning documentary filmmaker and travel journalist. My content house, Oh The People You Meet (OTPYM) Productions creates three shows + TV segments. In our award-winning series, Oh The People You Meet with Michaela Guzy, I introduce audiences to the local people you actually meet when travelling, including chefs, designers, artists, activists and scientists. I believe it is important to empower our local hosts to share their own stories.
In response to COVID-19, I launched a visual podcast called InspirationStation, of which there are now more than 125 episodes with over 10 million+ views.
In June 2020, I began documenting the world's reopening in a short-form series called Sleeping Around Safely, where I travel the world as a solo female and live in luxury hotels, safari tents and cruise ships. I've been houseless (not homeless) ever since.
Rather than “a traveller”, I consider myself a journey seeker. I am literally one of the OG digital nomads.
Four words that describe my travel personality: free; open-minded; curious; connected.
I grew up in St Louis, Missouri, US, and we would often go to a cabin on Lake Michigan with my extended family for our holidays. Michigan is still my favourite place. Nothing says summer to me quite like a family vacation and we’ve been heading there every year since I can remember. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, but somehow my family always found a way to bring us out into the wilderness all crammed in a cabin. It was like camp, but with your family.
Technically my first trip abroad was on an 18-day family road trip. All of us ... the dog, grandma and a babysitter stuffed in a wood-panelled minivan with a rooftop carrier. I was a preteen and this was social suicide. When we got to Canada, I made a break for it. I hid in a payphone stall and collect-called my dad from Niagara Falls. There was no way I was getting back in that car. My father, who was a homicide detective and a master hostage negotiator, had his work cut out for him getting me back in that car.
I remember more fondly our family cruise (when my sisters and I were late teens and young adults) around the Irish Sea. We visited Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man. It was so fun exploring new places with my mom and sisters. I discovered wine makes family time more fun and tolerable.
Over the years, I've had some very remote and difficult adventures. In 2019, I went to Sierra Leone to document Dr Jane Goodall's return to the country to celebrate chimpanzees' being named the national animal. Our shoot was fraught with every foreseeable challenge (lack of electricity, food poisoning, missing my water taxi to the airport because I was being held at gunpoint). But after all that the people of Sierra Leone have overcome in recent times — extreme poverty, civil war, poaching, mud slides, ebola, COVID-19 — they are so happy, so welcoming and forward thinking. I couldn't help but be motivated to share their stories with the world.
My favourite international city is Cape Town. It's like the best parts of Los Angeles and San Francisco had an affair with South Africa and their love child was Cape Town. I've been hooked since my first visit. It's all the things from creative to affordable. The city has world-class restaurants and hotels, wineries in every direction, penguins, great whites (when the orcas aren't around), people from around the world who call it home, art, design, fashion, music, a deeply rich African history, killer sunrises and sunsets and heck you can be up and down Lion's Head and at your desk by 9am.
In 2012, I left my corporate career in NYC and booked a one-way ticket to Africa. I spent three plus months immersing myself in seven African countries and I was totally hooked. Solo travel forces you to be more curious and open minded, it also makes you more approachable. I've had so many life changing experiences because I just said yes to someone new I met when travelling. The only things I've really regretted in life are the things I didn't try.
Travellers may come to Africa for the animals, but they fall in love with the landscape and they return for the people. Every time I visit, I feel like my heart gets ripped out of my chest and returned to me on a silver platter — I feel different, I see differently and I am forever transformed by the people I've met.
When it comes to adventurous eating, I always like to try things twice. In my travels there are two exceptions to this rule: mopani worms in Namibia and guinea pig in Peru. I am still traumatised from both.
Depending on the time of day when I arrive in a new place, my first stop is always to either a local coffee shop or watering hole. I always sit at the bar, talk to the barista/bartender and observe the clientele. Then I engage in conversation and ask lots of questions to source local information from the server(s) and those folks. I also research the best vintage shops. I try to shop small, local and vintage whenever I can as a part of trying to live my most sustainable life.
I've also found that vintage shops are usually in “cool neighbourhoods” with hip and trendy people in the shops, venues and restaurants nearby.
WATCH | Guzy shares an embarrassing travel story
When I had a house, I used to collect magnets and artwork as souvenirs. I still have a few pieces of art from around the world in storage. As a houseless nomad, I now collect clothing and jewellery from local designers — so many from South Africa. I love hats by Crystal Birch, bags by Missibaba, clothing by Stefania and Shana Morland, jewellery by Ida Elsje, Philippa Green and Shimansky.
Favourite hotels? I am obsessed with travelling around Africa. I love the range in style of hotels from the wine lands to the cities to the bush. The Royal Portfolio never disappoints. Their foundation also supports projects in each of the communities where they operate hotels and highlights works by up-and-coming local artists to their well-heeled travellers from around the world.
People freak out when I — as a solo female traveller — say I'm headed to Mexico, Yas Island, Madagascar and just about anywhere in Africa. Some of it is reverberations from the pandemic; some because they've just never been. The reality is that anything can happen at any time. You need to use your head and be alert. Heck, I moved to NYC three weeks before 9/11. I actually think most of Africa and South Africa are more peaceful than what is happening around the world.
In the years I've been travelling to South Africa, I've been blessed with life-changing experiences. I leave a little piece of my heart in Africa every time I visit. I do believe that the more you travel, the more your eyes, mind and heart open to the people, places and purposes around you. The walls come down. You realise you are more alike than different. It's really hard to be unkind when you like and respect the person sitting across from you. I think travel does that for people. It's a gift I wish that everyone had the chance to experience.
Where to next? I've always been obsessed with crossing the deserts of Chad and riding across Mongolia on horseback. I can't wait to see my favourite animal (penguins) in Antarctica and I've only scratched the surface in Ethiopia.
